Medical facilities conventionally use various medical apparatuses such as medical image processing apparatuses including medical image diagnostic apparatuses and image reference apparatuses, RIS (Radiology Information System) servers, and image servers. These medical apparatuses communicate with each other in compliance with, for example, the DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communication Medicine) standards.
For example, a medical image diagnostic apparatus such as an X-ray CT apparatus or MRI apparatus communicates with an RIS server in compliance with the DICOM standards to receive information concerning a captured image of an object from the RIS server. The medical image diagnostic apparatus captures an image of the object by referring to the received information. The medical image diagnostic apparatus communicates with the image server in compliance with the DICOM standards to transmit the captured medical image to the imager server.
Note that the data communicated in compliance with the DICOM standards includes individual data and a tag added to the individual data. The individual data includes patient information such as a patient name, patient ID, and sex. The tag is an identifier for identifying the attribute of the individual data. The DICOM standards include modes such as DICOM MWM and DICOM Storage meeting various needs. In addition, various types of medical apparatuses communicate with each other in compliance with the DICOM standards. For this reason, some individual data and some tags have unique information described for each mode, each medical apparatus, and each user.
As described above, since various kinds of information are described in individual data and tags, some individual data and some tags which are supported by a communication source medical apparatus may not be supported by a communication destination medical apparatus. In such a case, the operator of the communication source medical apparatus manually makes settings so as not to transmit any individual data or tags which are not supported by the communication destination medical apparatus or manually makes settings to delete individual data and tags which are not supported by this medical apparatus. This imposes heavy burden on the operator.
It is therefore an object to provide a medical image processing apparatus which can execute data processing concerning an object while reducing burden on the operator when, for example, the data received in compliance with the DICOM standards includes individual data and a tag which are not supported by the apparatus, and a program used by the apparatus. It is also object to provide a medical apparatus which can reduce burden on the operator when the data received in compliance with the DICOM standards includes individual data and a tag which are not supported by the apparatus.